Verizon BlackBerry Storm Launch Goes From Bad To Worse To A Damn Shame

For all of you would be Verizon BlackBerry Storm buyers that got that Verizon private sale flyer with the big picture of the BlackBerry Storm on it that thought you would actually be able to buy the BlackBerry Storm before November 21st only to find out that you would have to stand right in line with Verizon’s customers that the don’t consider to be their “Most Valued”…

For all of you would be Verizon BlackBerry Storm buyers that thought you were going to be able to buy a device in the store this passed Friday only to find that the store you went ran out of their supply of BlackBerry Storm devices one minute and twelve seconds after the store opened…

That’s what happens when you rush a product to market simply to cash in on holiday sales. The saga of the Bold and AT&T should have taught us that RIM isn’t very reliable in getting its products to market on time. Looks like RIM is having major growing pains and if it doesn’t get its act together soon, they won’t have to worry about it as the iphone will have completely have taken its market.

Underpromise and over deliver, I bet the units that have a ship date of 12/15 ship out this week or early next (same thing happened with my Voyager a year ago and it shipped within 2 days). If you want the device, you’ll wait and not cry about it.

Is this launch botched? My opinion is no, same thing happened with the curve launch, stores receiving a limited supply. Honestly, standing in line is ridiculous IMO. Wait a few weeks until the demand dies down an then make the purchase. But we live in a “Have to have it, have to have it now” society.

You don’t like it? Go over to AT&T.

I had a great CS experience at a VZW store today, same award winning service that keeps me as a Verizon customer.

Totally agree with some statements here. I am not with Verizon, I am with SpitNextel (spelling was intentional)because of my job which depends on d/c.I have been waiting for YEARS for this new blackberry direct connect phone, again YEARS. So a few days or weeks aren’t so bad.like the guy above said, I’m sure your current phone will last till then.

I just found out from a friend that the storm will be available for direct connect has anyone heard this?Because if so my phone i870 was in the spin cycle of my wash and luckily I had a 710 laying around and I would rather wait to purchase the storm.

Oh, and I bought an iPhone this weekend too. Comparing tke storm, the iPhone, and the Pearl which I’ve used the past two years. Thought it would be good to see how it would compare to everyday use that I’ve grown accustomed to.
By the way, I’m flying on sure type.

I was able to try out a Storm at a Verizon kiosk today, and my first impressions:

1) Typing text on the Storm is far superior to text entry on the iPhone…there’s no comparison. In fact, I think that over time I could get to be pretty fast on the Storm. Major props to RIM for figuring out an elegant solution to create tactile feedback on a virtual keyboard.

2) While RIM has the virtual keyboard down, the rest of the software is a bit laggy. It doesn’t even compare to the iPhone’s responsiveness or smooth transitions. You can tell the Apple expertise in software as well as their perfectionistic tendencies. I sincerely hope that RIM perfects their software for this device and soon. If they do they will have a really awesome device.

3) The RIM browser, while much improved, still is not up to the standard of mobile Safari on the iPhone.

4) I wonder how many sales RIM will lose by not having enough of this device in inventory for this week? It’s absolutely amazing how a software bug is creating this mess.
I mean you have first the hype about the device, which obviously worked to create some pretty impressive initial demand…but you also have black Friday this week and one of the biggest weekends for retailers.

Compare both launches of the iPhone w/ this one…not only did Apple have far more inventory available, and so capitalized very effectively on the initial surge of demand, but they made sure their software worked well.

Now that all being said, both VZW and RIM will survive this; sometimes if you read the blogs you get the impression that it’s amazing that either company is in business.

1. The Software Bugs: To me, no big deal if you understand that software bugs can and are fixed in due time. The Voyager had issues with the first firmware and was fixed pretty quickly and is now a very solid phone (at least in my experience).

2. Volume – I would rather see a company launch a product in limited supply than risk a recall due to a production flaw. Guaranteed, the subsequent production runs will put out plenty of the devices.

3. I recall numerous activation headaches with the iPhone launch, and a possible problem with their software as it related to dropped calls and such, which Apple then fixed.

So, no launch is without its problems. Yes, it would have been nice if VZW would have had enough devices to meet the demand and no software issues, but that’s not the case. I’ve seen very few product launches where Software is bug free.

Finally, I’ve been reading that if you remove one or 2 of the VZW customized apps from the Storm, the products works much better. Again, this is fixable and will be in due time. RIM/VZW generally resolves these issues pretty quickly.

I went to Verizon to get the Storm and was told I didn’t qualify for the upgrade price of $249. I would have to pay full retail. I’m only 4 months shy of the date to qualify. After 18 years of being a good customer you think they’d cut me some slack. Nothing like turning down $249 plus the $100 a month for the voice & data plan. Guess I’ll go to AT&T when contract is up.

If you think that is bad, my brother went into Verizon earlier this month to get a new phone, because his is broken and is not working well, and he was only 2-3 days from his new every two. They wouldn’t do anything for him until the actual date. So, if you think four months is bad… what is 2-3 days?

[…] looks like Verizon has moved their “shipped by” disclaimer on the BlackBerry Storm from December 15th up one week to December 8th. I have recieved dozens and dozens of emails from readers who say […]